Bad Blood
by Bubonic
Summary: Sherlock and John are confronted with a mystery about Children vanishing into expirminant labs, uncovering a Young girl who has been a test subject, they must stop any more of her kind from being created and unleashed in the world...


"What have we got?" Sherlock was quick to ask as he walked fast into the factory building. The place had been remote, nothing but a few similar buildings surrounding it.

"Well, so far, all of the scientist have either been killed or fled the area. Judging from the mess inside they were in a hurry to destroy any bits of information they could." Lestrade spoke fast as he walked along side of his detective.

"And the test subjects?"

"Most of them were killed." Lestrade opened the main door to the building for Sherlock and Watson who was following closely behind Sherlock.

"Most? There are still some alive?" Leaning down, Sherlock stared into Lestrade's eyes, which always made him edgy.

"Yes, only one. A female. Young, cannot be older then sixteen."

"Where is she now?" John asked as he pulled off his gloves.

"Well, she is still in the cage the scientist kept all the children in. The damn thing has a huge lock on it; I have my boys working to get it off now."

"How is her condition? Does she look alright? Is she speaking?" His medical instincts kicked in without him knowing.

"In all honesty, she looks horrible. But I will let you two be the judge of it." Leading the two of them into a rather large room, Sherlock and John both spotted the large cages the children had been put into. What had been more disturbing, the children still lying inside of them, pools of blood surrounding their bodies "They were all executed, shot in the head."

"_Jesus Christ_…" John covered him mouth only a moment before there was a high pitched squeal from the other end of the room. John and Lestrade moved on down while Sherlock took his time looking at every child.

"This is her." Lestrade moved a few of the officers out of the way so john could see the girl.

Cowering up against the back of the cage, the young girl was whimpering softly. Both arms had been wrapped around her stomach area as she crouched down into a fetal position. John was quick to notice the large patch of red on her hospital gown.

"She is hurt." He seemed frantic now, wanting to treat her.

"Yes, we know. But she won't come over to us. She probably thinks we are going to kill her. No matter how many times I said to her they we were here to help, she just refuses."

"She's _traumatized_." John stuck his hand through the cage and held it out to the girl. "Listen, no one is going to hurt you." He made his voice soft as silk and gentle. "I promise no one is going to hurt you anymore. We are here to help. What is your name?" He waited a moment, only to see her squish further into the corner.

"It's no use John; we tried everything to get her to come over. We are going to have to wait till they cut the lock off to get close to her." Lestrade turned his back to John and proceeded to yell at the other officers to hurry up."

Sherlock was wondering out, going through several desks till he found what he was looking for. Pulling out several manila folders, she began to look through them. Tossing the ones that had no value to him on the desk he finally stopped at one and read it.

"John. Come here." His deep voice sounded over everyone else's. And like that, John was at Sherlock's side.

"What did you find?" He asked as Sherlock handed him the folder. Opening and flipping through a few pages he stopped and looked at a picture. "This is that girl." He turned and looked at the whimpering child.

"Her name is Maria. There is no last name. No birth date. No address. All the other children had complete folder's, she is the only one that is not complete." Sherlock watched John's eyebrows connect. "If I had to guess, she is at least sixteen. I'm not sure yet if she was kidnapped like the other children, or she has been here her whole life. But I do know that she was their best experiment."

"How do you know that?" John cocked his head to the side.

"A scientist wouldn't kill the _only successful test subject_."

"What a minute. Are you saying they killed the others because they were _failures_?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying." There was a smile on his face now. "Interesting."

"Why is murder of innocent children interesting?" John went back to flipping through the folder before he tossed it back on the desk.

"What do we know so far? Come on John think." He waited a moment then spoke before John could even reply. "They did experiment on these kids, but what kind?" Sherlock's arm suddenly whipped in the other direction. "Animal." His finger was pointing to small crates that had once housed small animals like dogs and cats. "There is still fur on the inside of them. They must have been trying to splice DNA."

"You think she was successful?"

"Maybe, but I think she could give us more answers once we get to her." Turning back around, Sherlock wandered over to Lestrade.

* * *

Maria was sniffling softly, still jammed in the corner she tensed when John knelt down by the bars and stuck his hand through once more.

"Maria." His voice was low and tender. "Maria…" He said again and smiled when she looked up at him. "My name is John." He put a hand on his chest. "I'm here to help you. We all are. No one here will hurt you. You are safe now. We are going to get you home." His hand was still outstretched to her. "Can you come closer? I promise I won't hurt you. I just want to look." At first he felt like he was getting nowhere with her, but after a moment she uncurled and turned to him. "Yes that's it. Good girl, you can move closer." He coaxed her farther; he took note of her flaccid movement. "That's it, come on." Reaching his hand out a little more, he smiled when she began to extend her own arm. Her skin was pale and covered in cuts from her wrist right up to her shoulder; John figured there were more under her gown. "See, I'm not going to hurt you." Maria's fingers hovered over Johns a moment. "I'm going to help you, I'm a doctor." He spoke as Maria's fingers grazed over his. Immediately her hand snapped back as if John had shocked her. A look of horror crossed her face and her back slammed against the back of the cell, causing the whole thing to rattle. "Easy, easy now. You're alight. You're alright." Raising his hands up, he backed up a bit. "You're alright." Confused he stood and watched Maria sit back in the corner.

"John," A voice came from behind him. "We have the saw, if you could just step out of the way so they can start cutting off the lock." Lestrade put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back while the officers got to work. Maria had put her arms over her head, trying to protect herself from the horrible sound and sparks.

"Listen, she's extremely frightened, you have to be careful when you take her out." John insisted.

"Don't worry, we have paramedics on hand." Lestrade reassured him as the cage door swung open with a loud creek.

As a paramedic approached Maria, the girl lunged forwards, grabbing the man and throwing him to the side of the cage. Bolting forwards, she slid past two officers and made a break for it.

"You idiots! Don't let her get away!" Lestrade snapped at his men before running off into the hall Maria had gone.

"Damn it!" John was about to run when Sherlock grabbed him. "Not that way, this way. We can cut her off." Yanking John down a different hall the two of them were off.

* * *

Skidding around a corner, Maria slammed her back up against a wall, allowing her pursuers to run right by her unseen. Standing there a moment to make sure she was clear, she continued on her way. Rounding another corner, she slammed into something soft. Staggering back a bit, she seemed disoriented a moment before realizing she had hit Sherlock.

"Ah!" Scrambling back, her wrist was grabbed and she was yanked hard into Sherlock's chest. Tightly wrapping his arms around her, he refused to let her go as she thrashed.

"Shh, you're alright." Despite her struggling, his grip tightened. He simply waited till she tired herself out before kneeling down to hold her better. "You're alright." Something in his voice eased her. Or was she just being foolish. Either way, he wasn't pinning her up against a wall, he wasn't hitting her, he wasn't yelling at her, and that caused her to wonder about him. Maybe he really was here to help.

"Please…" He heard her whisper as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Please. Just leave me alone." Her breathing was labored, it sounded graining and painful. "Please, no more pain. No more. Please. No more." Her hands gripped his scarf, tangling it within her fingers. Sherlock took that moment to rub her back soothingly.

Though, the moment was ruined when several paramedics and Lestrade came around the corner. Immediately, Maria felt betrayed by Sherlock, she knew it was too good to be true.

"No! No! No! No!" Trying to yank herself from Sherlock, she only felt dizzy. The wound on her side was oozing out even more blood. "I won't go back! I won't!" She screamed. Suddenly Sherlock squeezed her tight and turned his back to the paramedics, almost as if he was shielding them from her.

"John." Sherlock snapped from over his shoulder as Maria began to hyperventilate. Her body suddenly froze and she was trembling so hard it looked like she was having a seizure.

"She's having a panic attack." John was quick to his side as Sherlock laid Maria flat on the ground. As the Paramedics got close he snapped at them to get back. Though Maria's eyes were wide open, the dark tunnel was taking her and she couldn't see or hear anything.

John put his fingers to her neck. "Her pulse is frantic. Leaning down, he listened to her short quick gasps, then he could see the blood pooling on the floor. "She needs medical attention now!" John had Sherlock pick her up. "Come on!" John had Sherlock climb into the back of an ambulance.

* * *

Maria came too when several doctors and nurses where leaning over her. She could feel the bed she was laying on moving. Blinking rapidly, she knew she was wheeled into a room and more faces loomed over her. Regaining more of her consciousness; she felt them poking and prodding at her. It took her a second before she lunged up, throwing her arms apart, she smacked several doctors and knocked a nurse down. Jumping off the bed, her legs betrayed her and she collapsed onto the floor.

A doctor grabbed her forearm, but she retaliated by biting his hand. As soon as he released her, she bolted, not realizing that her IV line was still in. As the needle ripped from her arm, a spray of blood coated the curtain to the room. Falling forwards into it, she ripped it from the hooks. Several other patients and doctors had paused to look upon her. She didn't give them time to react as she rolled and ran down a hall. With one hand pressed to her side, she skidded to a stop in front of the elevator, mashing the buttons; she smeared blood all over the panel.

"Come on! Come on!" She shouted at it. Gasping when she saw a police officer round the corner she went for the stairs. Only making it down a few flights she had to burst though another door. Slamming it closed she barreled through the corridor. Whenever a doctor tried to stop her she shoved them out of the way. All of them shocked by this little girl's brutal strength.

"Leave me alone!" She snapped and burst through a set of double doors. She froze, there a few feet away, was Sherlock. He was talking with the man who she remembered they called Lestrade. Though as soon as she had entered all attention was focused on her. Her hesitation ended up costing her.

Strong hands wrapped around her, restraining her as she struggled. The doctors grabbed her arms and several nurses held her legs. One of the main doctors was approaching her with a needle, and her eyes were locked on it.

"Stop!"

The nurses and doctors looked up to see Sherlock. "Let her go." He demanded. But they didn't.

"Sir, she is in a critical state and she just caused havoc though half of my hospital." The doctor with the needle snapped.

"She will cause even more if you don't let her go." Sherlock pulled the doctors off of her and pulled her close, trying to ignore the fact that she latched onto him. "Get me a room for her, I will take her too it." Sherlock had his hand over Maria's head, blocking her view from the doctors.

"Fine, but I am having a nurse go with you. The second she is out of control, we are taking over." Shooing the others away he left Sherlock alone with Maria who was sobbing profusely into his coat.

"Shh." He cooed softly and picked her up bride style. Lestrade, who was watching was a little shocked at Sherlock's actions. Who knew the detective could be so gentle.

"Come, this way." The nurse motioned for Sherlock to follow her to the room where Maria would be staying.

"Uh…" Maria hid her face in Sherlock's shoulder not wanting to see all the doctors staring at her as they walked.

"It's alright." Sherlock whispered to her as he entered a room. Setting Maria down on the bed, he moved away only for his neck to be caught. Maria had a death grip on his scarf and she was too afraid to let go.

"Maria, listen to me. I'm going to get a doctor." He saw her eyes filling with tears already. "No, no, not one of those doctors. A doctor you can trust. My friend." He gently pealed her fingers off his scarf. "You can trust me alright."

"But…-Sherlock cut her off when he put a put his hand up to shush her. "Trust me alright." Sherlock turned and left, taking the nurse with him who locked the door just in case she got any ideas. But she didn't. Sitting there she waited patiently. Poking her fingers together, she let out a soft sigh and looked out the window.

Upon hearing the door open, she looked over, Sherlock entered first and she relaxed, but when she saw John she leaned back a bit, becoming uneasy.

"Maria, this is my friend. John Watson. He is also a doctor." Sherlock made John stand back a bit. "He's my friend."

"Friend..." She repeated then looked at John who smiled at her.

"We met before, remember." He held out his hand to her, but she didn't move at all, she remembered him. She was just still so nervous about him. How could she trust another one of them? A doctor, the same people who put her in the position she was in now.

"Can John look you over? I promise he won't hurt you. We are only here to help you." Sherlock could tell by Maria's eyes that she was not sure.

"Will you stay?" She spoke to Sherlock but didn't take her eyes away from John.

"If you would like me to," Pulling up a chair, Sherlock sat. "Can John examinee you?" he watched her hesitate before nodding slowly.

"Alright, no need to be afraid now." John's voice was very soft. From working in the clinic, he had gotten used to working with kids and knew how to approach the ones who were afraid. "I'm just going to feel around your neck and face to check your sinuses okay. If anything hurts let me know." John waited for her to nod before moving his hand close, but as he did she flinched back. John waited for her to move closer. "That a girl." He comforted her before pressing down on her face. Working his way down he felt her lymph nodes which were horribly swollen. He noted her whimpering softly when he put too much pressure on them. "You're doing fine." John smiled softly at her and felt her pulse, still erratic. Removing his hands from her neck he got his stethoscope. "Just want to listen to your breathing." He could tell she was weary of the instrument but he waited for her to relax before putting it on her chest. "Deep breath for me." John squinted a bit, her breathing was horribly ragged. Her lungs were filled with fluid and it was causing her to wheeze and cough from time to time. "Alright," Wrapping the stethoscope around his neck he got a thermometer. "Open." He said and stuck it into her mouth, though he noticed something about her teeth. Normally humans only have two canine teeth. But Maria had four. And they were jagged like a vampire's. Once it beeped, he pulled it out. "As I thought," John frowned at the thermometers reading. "103, you're on fire." He put his hand to her forehead, and just as he figured it was hot. "Maria," He said. "Is it okay if I remove your gown?" He knew it was a sensitive question, but he wanted to see if the rest of her body had any damage.

"What…" Maria had heard the question, though she still said it. "My gown," Her hands suddenly gripped the sheets.

"Yes, you don't have to be shy." He saw her look away. "Maria, we know you are hurt." He pointed to the blood stain. "You can trust me okay." He watched her look at him, then, she shrugged the gown off. John almost wanted to look away; her whole body was covered in scars from her neck right down to her waist. Some scares looked like they had been from being whipped, others perfect slices from knives. John also noticed the fresh wounds all around her arms and stomach. He instantly saw the wound they had been causing so much blood loss. "Jesus." John forced Maria to lie down. The laceration must have been at least 4 inches long. It wasn't deep enough to have hit any organs, but it was enough to bleed pints. It was located right above her hip bone, and it was caked with old blood. Seems this wound is somewhat old. It had been trying to heal but with all her movement she kept reopening it. "This is going to need stitches." John was quick to place a cloth over it and apply pressure which made Maria hiss in agony. "Sorry." John took her hand and had her hold the cloth. "Hold that for me okay, I'm going to palpate your stomach. If anything hurts let me know." Pressing down on several spots on Maria's stomach, he noticed her tense whenever he pressed close to her kidneys or her ovaries. Finishing with her stomach, he took one of her arms and began to look it over. Her wrist were badly cut up and bruised, probably from being shackled to something. He also noticed small red bumps on her arm, probably from needles being forced into her roughly. No wonder the poor thing was so scared. Setting her arm down John patted her on the shoulder. "Just give me a second." He said before turning to Sherlock.

"So, what have you got?" Sherlock said in a low whisper, but he noticed Maria's eyebrows come together.

"She's in pretty bad shape Sherlock. She has a high fever, probably has a type of the flu. She's also extremely emaciated. She needs to eat something but that wound on her side needs to be mended first. I can do it, but I would like to sedate her. She needs the sleep and it will be less painful for her. I also wanted to get some blood samples from her, but I think I'm going to wait on the samples for a bit. I don't want to stress her any more then she is." John looked back at Maria who was staring at the ceiling. "She is covered in scares. She has been abused."

"Clearly," Sherlock only rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm going to go get a sedative from the nurse, then start her on an IV to get some fluids into her. I want you to stay here and keep her calm. She isn't going to like me when I come back." John watched as Sherlock nodded and stood.

Upon John reentering the room, Maria could sense something was wrong. She stared John down till he sighed.

"Alright," He sat down next to her. "I'm just going to give you something to relax you. It's going to make you sleepy." He tried to take hold of her arm but she moved away, already knowing what he was trying to do.

"No…" She said in such a bitter tone even Sherlock moved back a bit.

"Maria, it's just to help you." He held up the needle to her to show her he wasn't going to do anything sly, but that seemed to make it worse. Upon seeing it, she began to pant. Her heart rate picked up and she blinked rapidly. "Alright, alright." John cooed. "Easy now." Again he went for her arm but this time she slapped his hand away. "Maria please." John sounded hurt. "I don't want to force it on you. I really don't want to have to." Maria tilted her head to the side a bit, somehow she knew he meant well, but her instincts were out of control. John tried a third time but again Maria refused. "I'm sorry." John said in advance before he grabbed her arm. Maria tried to retaliate with a slap, but Sherlock grabbed her other wrist and held her still.

"No! Please don't! I'll do anything! Please!" Mounds of tears welled in her eyes and she broke down. She gasped upon the shark prick in her shoulder. The painful sting only made her sob harder and struggle more.

John moved as quickly as he could, pushing the plunger and forcing the liquid into her then pulling the needle out and rubbing the sore spot. "Shh, you're alright."Laying her back, already seeing her head droop to one side. "Good girl…" Stroking her head, he waited for her to be completely out before getting his suturing kit out.

"How is she?" Lestrade asked John and Sherlock as they exited the room.

"I mended her wounds, and started her on an IV. She needs antibiotics for the infected wounds, and warm food when she wakes. She's going to be hard to get close to, so don't try to force yourself onto her or she will fight back." Rubbing the back of his head, John only sighed. "What are you going to do with her? Once she is out of the hospital?"

"Well, child services will probably be taking her. Try to find her parents so she can go back home." Lestrade rubbed his chin. "So far all the other children in the lab had been missing for years. But we cannot find any record of her being missing. It's strange. Maybe once she is calmer, she can tell us more."

"Alright. Will you call me if anything happens to her?"

"Yes, frankly I think you two are the only two people who have gotten that close to her without her biting any of you." Smirking, he patted John on the back and let them go on their way.

* * *

It must have been three in the morning when John was awoken by the sound of glass shattering. Sitting up in bed, he rubbed his eyes then arose from bed. Sleepily, he walked down the stairs and into the living room of the flat where he saw a broken vase. Staring at it a moment, he noticed it had been sitting on the shelf near the window, which was open. As he realized what was going on, there was a sound from behind him. Tensing up, he whirled around, ready to strike whatever it was, only to have to stop right before striking Maria.

"Jesus!" John shouted as he stepped back. "Maria? Why are you not at the hospital! How did you…how did you know where we were?" Rubbing his face he really looked at Maria. Her face was incredibly pale, and her hands were shaking along with her legs.

"Hold on let me call-"As he picked up his phone Maria was quick to snag it from his hand and slam it down on the receiver.

"No please don't." She sounded out of breath. "Please don't take me back there." She pleaded before staggering. Grabbing for anything to catch her balance she knocked a book shelf over. The loud crash woke Sherlock.

As Maria sat on the floor panting, she winced and grabbed at her side where her fingers were coated with a layer of blood.

"Dear god Maria, you ripped your stitches." He could already see the blood lining her shirt. Kneeling down, he lifted her shirt rather roughly which made her uneasy. Immediately he got to work on the wound, fixing what he could before putting a bandage over it. "Maria you cannot stay here, you have to go back to the hospital. There are people there who are going to help you find your parents." He stopped when he saw the tears roll down her cheek.

"I don't have parents! Why won't you people listen to me! I'm not like the others. My home was the lab! So stop telling me they are going to bring me home because I don't want to go back to the lab ever again!" Wrapping her arms around her head, she sobbed. "Please…Please don't let them take me back." Her breathing had become labored once again, she was panicking.

"Maria." Gently pulling Maria's arms off her head, he put his hand under her chin to force her to look up. "Maria, calm down and breathe. You are making yourself sick." He noticed she leaned into his touch, than her hand grabbed his hand held it harder to her face.

"Please, I will do anything."

John was silent a moment before sighing and standing. "Let me make a call, okay? I won't take you back to the hospital or the lab. But you have to promise me you will sleep." He could see the bags under her eyes. "Is that fair?" At first, the girl hesitated then nodded and climbed onto the couch. "That's a good girl." Tossing a blanket over her he patted her shoulder then grabbed his mobile.

John walked into the kitchen, his phone pressed to his ear as he paced back and forth franticly.

"John I was just about to call you."Lestrade spoke suddenly.

"Let me guess, Maria went missing."

"Yes how did you know?"

"Because she is in our flat," John whispered and looked over his shoulder to make sure Maria was still on the sofa.

"She's what?"

"She is here, with me. She broke in. She's crying, panicked, she thinks we are going to take her back to the lab. She insists it actually."

"Alright, I will have a team over to pick her..." He was cut off by John.

"That's not a good idea. She won't go with you. She would rather fight you all off then go with you. I think its better she stayed here tonight. You said child services would look into it, maybe you can allow them to foster her to us."

"Foster?" Lestrade was silent for a moment. "Well, you two are the only ones that can get close to her. I will see what I can do. But John," His voice was hard. "Do not let her out of her sight. We have a feeling people are after her."

"Will do." Hanging up, John turned, almost bumping into Sherlock.

"Foster." He said dryly. "You want to keep her."

"I never said keep." Setting a kettle down on the stove, John simply sighed and crossed his arms. "Just guard her. She won't let any of the hospital or child service workers near her, seems she has grown attacked to us."

"She _observed_ us…"

"What?" John's head cocked to the side.

"She only trust's us because we showed some sort of protections towards her. When I grabbed her in the hall as she was running away, I had pulled her close; I also had turned my back to the paramedics to shield her from them to keep her from panicking more and struggling against me. She thought I was protecting her from them. Thus her thinking I was a good guy. Also when you examined her, you allowed her to tell you when she was ready to be examined rather than having to force her down. Despite the sedating, she still trusts you, and the fact you were able to convince her to lay down and sleep also suggests she trusts you." Twirling around a bit, Sherlock put his hands to his mouth. "She trusts us because we are the only people who have probably defended her. Though on our part that was merely coincidental."

"Sherlock, I wasn't pretending to be nice to her while I examined her. She was afraid and I was not going to force my hand on her."

"Oh come now John, you saw the wound on her, of course you would have had to force your hand sooner or later or allow the medics to do it. Due to our actions, she allowed us in and not the others because they were so rough with her. Also, there is something about this girl, something interesting that she and those files are not telling us." He spun around and pointed at the girl.

"There is something I have wanted to show you that I noticed earlier while at the hospital."

"What was it?" Now looking even more interested, the detective moved closer to John.

"I will show you." Walking over to Maria, he gently shook her. "Maria, I know I told you to rest, but I just want to look you over one more time. I want to show Sherlock a few things then I promise you can sleep." Half expecting her to ignore him, he smiled when she sat up and nodded.

"Okay."

"Good girl, just give me a second." Shuffling around, John grabbed a small light. "Open your mouth nice and wide for me like this." Mimicking exactly when he wanted her to do, she followed his orders. "Look." Flashing the light into her mouth, he pointed to her fangs. "She has two sets of canines. Usually people only have one set. I also noticed her molars are incredibly sharp as well." Moving aside, allowing Sherlock to scan everything, he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Also," John started. "You can close your mouth Maria." He tilted her head down a bit then flashed the light in her eyes. Immediately, they reflected the light, and seemed to glow a bit.

"Interesting," A wide smirk was smeared across the detectives face. "Maria, can you tell us what they were doing at the lab? Anything you can remember, anything at all that might shed some light on this." Sitting down by John, he put his hands to his lips in his usual thinking position before leaning close.

"The lab?" She seemed repugnant at first, than swallowed hard. "I…they…" John noticed her fingers tangling together.

"Maria, it's alright, take your time." Comforting her, he gave her a very gentle smile.

"At the lab, they were experimenting on us."

"Obviously," Sherlock scoffed before John elbowed him in the gut.

"They were trying to splice human and animal together. They had tried using adult subjects first, but they all seemed too old and could not handle the stress from the procedures, so most died. But the ones that did survivors were always in pain, always suffering from after affects."

"What kind of side effects." John looked at Sherlock who was still locked on Maria.

"Well, I am not sure of all the effects, but I have seen some. The subjects lose their minds. Violent outbursts, loose off all morals. They just go _crazy_. Most of the time…the doctors would put them to sleep."

"Put to sleep?"

"Kill them John." Sherlock was quick to answer.

"Yes, thank you I think I could have reached that conclusion myself."

"And what was the point off all of these experiments? Did you know?" Sherlock had gotten even closer to Maria, making her a little uneasy.

"I uh…" She leaned back from Sherlock, "I overheard some of the doctors talking about making a better soldier. I think it was to heighten their senses. They wanted to make a better ground soldier for war. They experimented with vision, hearing, and smell, then came touch, and speed. The more a subject could take, the more they would add to it." She was about to say more when John interrupted her.

"Wait, you mean they were trying to make super soldiers?"

"Well, yeah, but it's not like I can lift a car or anything."

"What can you do?" Lifting his tea cup from his saucer, Sherlock sipped the hot liquid gingerly.

"I can see in the dark. I can also hear things from blocks away. My reaction time is a lot better than most, and I can run a lot faster and longer than an athlete."

"What animal did they splice you with?"

"If I remember correctly, it was a Germen Sheppard. Her name was Maria."

"They named the dog after you?" John cocked his head to the right.

"No, they don't name the animals." She looked down.

"But-"John was cut off when Sherlock raised his hand.

"The animals had names, but the human subjects didn't. They must have named the kids after the animals."

"They were calling the kids…animals."

"Seems so," Leaning back, Sherlock crossed his legs.

"Anything else you can tell us? Anything at all that might help us? What about the other children, did you know anything about them?" Taking her hand, he squeezed it to support her.

"We did not know much about each other. All I know is that most of the kid's who were in there were taken off the street or homeless. There was a boy once; he must have been a few years older than me. They moved his experiments forwards and he went crazy. They shot him…in front of me and the others as an example not to disobey. The rest of the kids there were younger than me. Every day there was at least two bodies leaving from failed experiments, and every day we would have our turn as being the next subject strapped to the table. The stronger kids would be put into the arena. It was a large room that was built for us to fight in. If we were put into the arena, we would have to kill the other who was fighting against us. If we fought and knocked out the other one, they would force us to kill them or do it themselves. Also, if we refused to fight, they would shoot us both." Hot tears rolled down her cheek. "I had to kill my only friend. She was just a little girl, they made me kill her." Staring down at her hands, she clenched them into fists. "She was only a little girl. It's not fair! It's not fair!" Breaking down and sobbing, she wrapped her arms around John when he hugged her.

"Shh, it's alright Maria. It's over now. It wasn't your fault. Don't blame yourself." Rubbing her back, he felt her relax.

Sherlock, tapping his fingers against his lips, blinked only once before inhaling deeply. "Cool." He whispered before standing. "One last thing," turning around, he walked over to the window and glanced out it. "Why did they kill all the subjects in the lab, but not you?"

"Right before you guys showed up, all the doctors were trying to grab everything they could. They were ripping though cabinets and folders, taking papers and information, probably to keep from you. I assume the last pieces of information they didn't want you to have were the test subjects, so they killed them all. I had to watch him shoot them all. No matter how hard I screamed, no matter how hard I threw myself against the bars, I couldn't get him to stop. When he got to my cage, he unlocked it and grabbed me. I struggled and bit his arm. He got angry and grabbed a scalpel and…well…you know." Her side throbbed at the thought. "He wanted to bleed me out till I passed out. He wanted to take me. But I didn't pass out, I kept fighting. So he threw me back in the cage and slammed the door then said…" Trailing off, she squeezed her eyes shut.

"What did he say?" John used his thumb to brush the tears from her cheek.

"He said he would come back for me. No matter where I was he was going to find me." Her arms suddenly wrapped around herself as she got into the fetal position. "He's going to find me and bring me back! Please, please don't let me."

"Calm down now, nobody is going to come after you any more, you are safe as long as you are with is okay." Embracing her once more he looked at Sherlock.

"Very interesting indeed. So I was right." He clasped his hands together in joy. "They didn't kill her because he was the only successful one so far. Fascinating!" He twirled. "A super soldier!"

"I'm not a success…" Maria snapped suddenly. "Just because I have survived the longest with all the operations and torture, doesn't mean they had finished with me! They still had a long way to go before I was done. I'm doomed to lose my mind sooner or later. It's just a matter of time before I break." Resting her head on John's shoulder, she fell very still.

"Listen to me very closely. We are not going to let that happen." Pulling her off so he could stare her in the eyes, John brushed hair from her face. "I won't let it happen."

"Promise me…"

"I promise." John heard Sherlock grunt and mumble…

**_Never make promises_**

* * *

**_...To be continued..._**


End file.
